


Heaven's Gate

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Black Panther (2018), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Nakia, BAMF T'Challa (Marvel), BAMF Tony Stark, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Shuri is a gem, Sweet T'Challa (Marvel), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 11:40:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13833519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Of all the ways Tony expected to go he never would have guessed radiation poisoning. He maybe would have guessed a weird disease, or alcohol poisoning, or pretty much anything else but a wave of radiation frying everything in its path and he was one of the lucky ones.He’s blinking blearily up at the sky when a face swims into his view and he frowns. “Huh. Guess heaven was real after all. Don’t know why they wasted an angel on me though,” he croaks out and the angel smiles. It’s the last thing he sees before he wakes up again in a lab.





	Heaven's Gate

Of all the ways Tony expected to go he never would have guessed radiation poisoning. He maybe would have guessed a weird disease, or alcohol poisoning, or pretty much anything else but a wave of radiation frying everything in its path and he was one of the lucky ones. He’d been in India when JARVIS had picked up on unusual radiation levels in America and they had to have been pretty high for the AI to contact him about it. Which was about when he saw the news, which led to a plane ride gone wrong, which led to him wandering around in what he assumed was the African continent but he had no clue where, specifically, he was. Just that he felt like he was being boiled from the inside out- not far off from reality- when he finally hits the ground, sure he wasn’t going to get back up.

He’s blinking blearily up at the sky when a face swims into his view and he frowns. “Huh. Guess heaven was real after all. Don’t know why they wasted an angel on me though,” he croaks out and the angel smiles. It’s the last thing he sees before he wakes up again in a lab.

*

T’Challa is alerted immediately when Nakia returns but he didn’t expect her to bring a tag along. W’Kabi immediately gives him an unimpressed look and T’Challa knows what he thinks of this but Nakia looks desperate. “We can’t just leave him to _die_ ,” she says, carefully readjusting her companion. He looked nearly dead already if he hadn’t died when they crossed the boarder.

W’Kabi opens his mouth to speak and T’Challa holds up his hand, immediately silencing him. “Is he even still alive?” he asks, giving the guy a skeptical look.

“Barely,” Nakia confirms, “we need to stop arguing and help him. We can’t just let him die,” Nakia repeats again and T’Challa nods.

“Take him to Shuri,” he tells her and she quickly starts dragging the radiation victim away.

“We can’t save everyone,” W’Kabi tells him, shaking his head.

“We can’t leave them all to die either, how is that fair?” he asks. This was not the first person who had been dragged back here and it definitely wasn’t the first time W’Kabi expressed his disinterest in the people that were brought back. Most were from spies placed all over the world- those that made it back brought friends and loved ones, unable to leave them to die in the wake of an event they weren’t quite sure about yet. Just that nuclear fall out obviously happened in some capacity because the world around them has cone eerily silent.

“The world is not fair, T’Challa,” W’Kabi tells him. “You are a good man and I understand you want to help, but we don’t even know what happened out there. What if we are letting the wrong people in?” he asks

T’Challa shrugs, “than we deal with it when that comes, but I can’t let people die when I know we can save them. Watch for anyone else at the boarder, alert me if more come,” he instructs and with that he leaves, knowing his order is clear.

He finds Nakia in Shuri’s lab smiling as Shuri works her companion over. “His name is Tony Stark- we checked his ID. When I found him he thought I was an angel,” she says, smiling fondly at Tony.

T’Challa laughs, “can’t blame him for that,” he says, smiling at Nakia. He would think she was an angel too, and in a way she was. Tony would be dead without her help, so would a lot of other people too. They got news fast- faster than the rest of the world even if it was only by hours, but hours was all Shuri needed to figure out that vibranium had given them a natural resistance to radiation thanks to its compounds. That gave them another few hours to figure out how to increase that natural resistance and as usual Shuri managed. Distribution had to be fast, but they learned on the fly that radiation sickness could be healed with Shuri’s cure. That had been useful when all the spies came back, loved ones with them.

The world was saved by a sixteen-year-old girl making meme references and dancing to music. That was just wild to T’Challa. Once Nakia had gotten her treatment she immediately recruited people to scout near by areas- people went because Nakia was a natural leader with a good heart. It was too bad, T’Challa thinks, that she had no desire to be a queen. She would be fantastic in the role- she knew when to push T’Challa and when to give in but she had other aspirations. He figured if he wanted her in his life he should accommodate for them, it wasn’t like she was fighting for a bad cause.

“Get a room,” Shuri tells them, laughing as Tony lets out a distressed noise, waving an arm around and Shuri jumps as Tony blinks himself awake.

“What the fuck?” he asks.

Shuri presses her hand over her heart, “don’t scare me like that, colonizer!” she tells him. “Now stop flailing around, I need to check your vitals.”

Tony looks around, panicked before his eyes settle on Nakia. He pauses for several moments before he speaks, “not to be racist, but why is heaven in Africa? And where on this continent are we, exactly?”

“You aren’t in heaven, dumbass. Nakia isn’t _that_ pretty,” Shuri mumbles, pressing her hand to Tony’s shoulder to get him to lay down.

“Then you might want to check your eyes, because she definitely is that pretty. So um, if this isn’t heaven I’m assuming I’m either dead or in hell and I think hell being in Africa would kind of rude. The lacking of flames and whatever is pretty sweet though,” he says, frowning at his surroundings.

“You’re in Wakanda, not heaven or hell. You’re so dramatic,” Shuri tells him. “And stabilized so you are free to go.” She steps back and makes a shooing motion at him but Tony looks confused.

“Wakanda?” he asks.

“I appreciate that you thought it was heaven though,” T’Challa tells him, laughing. This is about when Tony realizes that he wasn’t covered in radiation burns anymore and he feels his face, lifts a sleeve, and frowns at the apparent lack of injury.

“What the hell does Wakanda have that everyone else doesn’t?” he asks. T’Challa points to his sister and Shuri grins, waving happily.

*

Tony was grateful, really, except for losing everyone he’s ever cared about. The list wasn’t even long, exactly two people and an AI, and all of that was gone. “For a man who just got a second chance you don’t look happy,” T’Challa says, making him jump in surprise. T’Challa smiles just a little at him, the expression surprisingly soft for a man who was currently running a mass refugee program half his country wanted nothing to do with. The people on the border seemed to be the loudest, which was probably inconvenient, but T’Challa was still here with his people. He took time to talk to the newcomers too, Tony included.

“Kind of hard to be happy when you’ve lost everything that you’ve ever cared about,” he says.

T’Challa presses his hand to Tony’s shoulder, giving him a sympathetic look. “Unfortunately you are not the only one,” he says softly.

He shakes his head, “never should have been _me_ to live. There are so many people worth more than I am,” he says, shaking his head. Rhodey for one, but Pepper two, but there were more than just them.

“What makes you say that?” T’Challa asks, head tilted to the side.

Tony snorts, “you’re probably the first person I’ve met since I was six that didn’t recognize me. I used to be a weapons developer. The number of people I’ve had a personal hand in killing is something I’d rather not think about,” he says.

“Do you believe what you did was right? Making weapons, distributing them?” T’Challa asks.

Tony scoffs, shaking his head, “of course not! It doesn’t change what I did though.”

“No, it doesn’t. But it does give you a chance to do something to help these people. I do know who you are, actually, and what you can do. You’re the second best engineer in this country and we need to find a way to test if food is safe let alone a way to make food. You have a country to help feed with my sister, if you want to,” T’Challa tells him, lips quirking up a little like he was issuing a challenge to him.

He shakes his head, “count yourself lucky, your highness, you’re probably the first political figure I haven’t told to kiss my ass since I could talk. I’m guessing Shuri can catch me up to speed?” he asks. T’Challa nods and Tony looks out over the sea of people mingling in what he learned was Wakanda’s capitol. He’s ruined countless lives, whole countries really, so if he could figure out how to feed this one he’d do it in a heartbeat. He would have even before this mess but instead of thinking of that he takes off to Shuri’s lab, finding the teen running tests and swearing, which promptly results in her asking not to tell her brother about it. Tony agrees because he didn’t really care anyways.

*

Shuri pokes Nakia in the side, “he was a good choice as far as people to save,” she tells her, nodding to Tony. He was smart- funny too- but mostly smart. T’Challa liked him as well, which was convenient given the amount of times they had to talk. And having someone else to update her brother left her more free time to find solutions to their arising problems too. They had a whole team now, including a communications team trying to locate survivors, but Tony had somehow become the go-between for Shuri and the rest of the scientists and T’Challa. It helped that even if he wasn’t an expert in the field he could become one fast, and it made work cycles less disrupted.

Nakia shrugs, “I didn’t save him because I thought he was useful. I just saw a man that needed saving. Plus he called me an angel, I couldn’t leave him there after that,” she says and Shuri rolls her eyes fondly. Truthfully Nakia was certainly beautiful enough to be an angel but Shuri liked to poke fun at her.

“Still a good choice. Banner too- he studied radiation for years and his wife is an absolute delight,” Shuri says, grinning. Betty had accidentally become the lead in communicating with anyone who wasn’t from Wakanda, which was a growing population. This was another problem for her, Tony, and the rest of the scientists to solve too- sustaining the now mass influx of people. To a larger country it probably wouldn’t matter but Wakanda was small and had limited housing. Thankfully people were taking refugees in so that bought them time but they needed to figure out housing at some point.

“Banner is twitchy,” Nakia says, “but he’s cute,” she adds, nodding to herself.

Shuri snorts, “don’t let my brother here you say that,” she teases. Nakia rolls her eyes and gives her a gentle push to the side.

“Don’t you have work to do?” she asks. Shuri sticks her tongue out at her but goes back to her lab because she did, in fact, have a lot of work to do.

*

T’Challa looks pleased, “well, two problems solved, only a million more to go,” he says. Tony laughs and shakes his head.

“Might be true, but your sister is extremely impressive. Without her I don’t think you would have managed to take all of us in so smoothly,” Tony says. He was smart- smarter than most everyone he’s ever met save for Bruce Banner and Rhodey, but Shuri had a level of intelligence that warranted its own league.

“I definitely would not have,” T’Challa agrees. “But you and the other scientists have been invaluable. Even W’Kabi has to admit that it was smart to bring you all in- Shuri can’t do all this on her own.” Tony actually doubted that- Shuri was… well he’s never quite seen anything like her. It might have been work but he wouldn’t actually be surprised if Shuri could solve all T’Challa’s problems herself. It’d just take more time.

He nods his head in thanks though, “I appreciate it. And you did save my life, I kind of owed you,” he points out but T’Challa shakes his head.

“We did the right thing- _Nakia_ did the right thing. There’s no need to thank us for that. But we do need a shelter solution soon, we discovered a few bunkers close by with people in them,” he says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, impressed, but he doesn’t say anything about the bunkers. “Shuri and I already worked out some easy to put together structures, we have people on building them as we speak actually. Forgot to mention that,” he says somewhat sheepishly.

T’Challa’s eyebrows go up, “really? What do you mean?” he asks. Tony pulls out one of Shuri’s tablets and shows him the designs they put together, how each structure acted sort of like a puzzle piece but they way they came together made them pretty hard to destroy. And they came in three sizes to accommodate families that were large and small. There weren’t many families left but those that remained shouldn’t have to be separated so he and Shuri worked it out. T’Challa is clearly impressed with it too. “This was more your idea than Shuri’s,” he says but it’s a fact, like this was something he knew immediately, not something he was guessing at. Clearly he knew his sister’s designs well.

He shrugs, “it was, but she helped with how the pieces should come together exactly. We didn’t want high winds to pick them up and drag them off, or for any other kind of rough weather to crush them or tip them,” he says. And they needed to go up fast too, which was its own problem. He and Shuri managed to solve two problems in one with the interlocking system they settled on and once that was solved they sent out for construction. Now it was someone else’s problem.

“You’ve never really done this before. I’m impressed,” T’Challa says.

“Actually I helped design Stark Tower. My assistant helped quite a bit too, but I have a small background in architecture,” he corrects.

“Your assistant was qualified to build a skyscraper?” T’Challa asks, frowning. “What kind of assistants did America have?”

Tony snorts, “none like Pepper. She was amazing and one of a kind- she was more like my business partner to be honest. And she studied architecture in college.” It had been brief and then she’d transferred into a business program but she’d retained to knowledge well just like she did with everything else. It paid off later when Tony was running into issues with his designs so at least there was that.

“Too bad she was lost to the radiation,” T’Challa murmurs. “You should get sleep though, you look awful. And go tell my sister to sleep while you’re at it- she probably hasn’t slept for as long as you.” When he doesn’t move T’Challa gives him a gentle push towards the lab and he sighs, rolling his eyes but following T’Challa’s instructions.

*

Tony was thankful they managed to save a bunch of animals because whatever this bird was it was the best damn bird he’s ever eaten. T’Challa wrinkles his nose at him though, “you have no taste,” he says and Tony makes an offended noise.

“Do so,” he mumbles through a mouthful of food.

T’Challa doesn’t look at all convinced but Tony decides that this is a tragedy. Clearly he was unaware that his country obviously had the best birds. “That has more flavor than American birds, but it taste like dirt,” T’Challa tells him in a prim tone.

“You must be eating some tasty dirt,” Tony tells him, earning an even more skeptical look from T’Challa.

He shakes his head though; moving away from that as a subject apparently because he asks what America was like. “I heard plenty, but I never did get a chance to go,” T’Challa says. He looks sad but Tony wasn’t sure if that was because he was disappointed with his lack of travels or if he was sad on Tony’s behalf.

Either way Tony didn’t know how to describe America, not in any meaningful way so he shrugs. “It was… diverse I guess. Depends on where you are because it could be these gorgeous views, way too many goddamn cornfields, or another fucking Walmart on a highway. We had a nice variety,” he says.

This makes T’Challa laugh, “too many cornfields?” he asks and Tony shrugs.

“What? There’s too no need for that much corn, what’s it doing there?” Tony hated rural areas- they were too loud and too quiet at the same time and, though he would never admit this to another human being _ever_ , he had a pretty nasty fear of the dark and the city was never dark. Not really anyways. Tony liked all the lights and traffic and chaos- he was at home there. Cornfields though? That was the stuff of nightmares and horror movies.

“Probably feeding people of cows,” T’Challa points out. “So you must prefer the city, then?”

Tony nods. “Its glamorous, dramatic, and has a dark underside people tend to ignore in favor of the beauty of it. I can relate,” he says with far too much honesty in his statement.

The comment gets him an odd look from T’Challa, who examines him for a moment. “I like cities for the people. You get more diversity here than in a rural area- that’s the benefit of having more people around you. That and there are more bugs in rural areas and I hate bugs,” he says, wrinkling his nose.

Tony snorts, “you’d get along well with Rhodey, he hates bugs too. Once when he was twenty-four he called me freaking out on the phone because this praying mantis got into his girlfriend’s house and he literally cried on the phone for forty five minutes about this fucking bug. I ended up driving four hours to go save his ass because he couldn’t just walk away and risk finding it later and he couldn’t bring himself to get close enough to kill it, and _someone_ had to save him. His girlfriend at the time was at work so guess that was me,” he says.

T’Challa raises an eyebrow, “you drove for four hours to save your friend from a bug?” he asks, shaking his head. “That is love.”

He laughs, “that’s pretty much what his girlfriend said before she dumped him on the claim that we were in love. Apparently she felt like she was always playing second fiddle to me, in her defense she was right, but Rhodey was pretty pissed that he had to stare at a bug all day only to get dumped afterwards,” he says. They had drove back to Tony’s apartment, ordered pizza, gotten way too drunk, and ignored their responsibilities for a couple days before things went back to normal too. It was a good memory and Rhodey’s loss… Tony didn’t even have words for that. Shuri and Wakanda and all the problems he had to solve kept him occupied and he was grateful for it. He never has handled grief well.

“Were you? In love, I mean,” T’Challa clarifies.

Was he? For a few long moments he considers that before he eventually nods, allowing himself a long denied truth. Rhodey was dead, what harm was there in admitting his love now? “Yeah. Never would have told him that- my father was a homophobe and Rhodey was in the military anyways. No sense in bothering to challenge a bunch of environments that sought to make sure I knew I wasn’t welcome. And I like women just fine anyways so no harm done,” he reasons. It wasn’t true at all, he’s probably messed himself up pretty good but that was nothing new either.

T’Challa makes a thoughtful noise, “America was a particularly homophobic country?” he asks

“Surprisingly so yeah. It got better but by the time that happened the damage was done to me, but at least other people had it better,” he says. It had to be a relief to know that on some level people weren’t as shitty as they used to be to youth but it meant less to Tony when he loved through worse. Progress was nice obviously, but it didn’t really erase all the times he was made to feel like shit about himself by people who had no idea what they were doing to him. They shouldn’t have needed to know though.

“We seem to have less of that here. We’ve had our issues with it obviously, but it seems less extreme than what we’ve gathered from elsewhere. It doesn’t really matter to you though, your friend definitely knew you were in love with him,” T’Challa says and Tony frowns.

“How could you know that?” he asks.

He shrugs, “because I barely know you and _I_ knew. There’s no way someone who certainly knew you well didn’t know. And I doubt it was one sided if his exes used your love as an excuse to leave him either. Something tells me that’s not the only time that happened,” he says, raising an eyebrow.

It wasn’t actually, but Rhodey loving him back wasn’t even something Tony ever considered. He guessed T’Challa’s observation made sense though and for the first time he wonders if maybe Rhodey had the same hang ups on being stuck in homophobic environments that he did. Not that it mattered now that he’s dead. “You aren’t wrong. If we’re talking love though what’s with you and Nakia? You two seem to be a good match so what’s stopping you?” he asks.

T’Challa’s lips tip up but there’s no humor in it. “Nakia… she’s a free spirit. We love each other, or we did, but she was never meant to stay in one place, do one thing. We both knew it too so we tried to move on with some success I suppose,” he says.

Tony laughs softly, “sounds like Rhodey. He befriended one of the richest people in America- I could have gotten him where ever he wanted to go, but he never came to me for help. And he wasn’t meant to be by my side anyways, not like I would have wanted and it would have been selfish for me to ask,” he says.

T’Challa nods, “which is the same reason I let go of my relationship with Nakia. If she was meant to come back she would,” he says. Tony’s guess was that she didn’t, like Rhodey didn’t, and she wasn’t likely to but not out of malice.

“We lead depressing lives,” he says and, unexpectedly, T’Challa laughs.

“Maybe so, but we all have some kind of second chance here now. Might as well use it. Follow me,” he tells Tony, standing and extending his hand down to him. Tony hesitates for only a moment before taking the offer.

*

Shuri looked as drop dead tired as Tony felt. “I wish the fish would keep themselves alive,” she mumbles. Yeah, Tony too and its not like he and Shuri had a background in zoology but no one else seems to have that knowledge either so making sure the fish didn’t die off was left to them.

“I agree. Want coffee?” he asks and Shuri lets out a long groan.

“You speak my language, Stark, go get the nectar of Bast,” she tells him. He laughs, shaking his head but he leaps at the opportunity to leave the lab for a few moments. The walk down the street to the local coffee shop was a fucking blessing- he needed the time away. Shuri did too but he’d send her on a food run later. It was how they had worked out survival at the moment- one leaves to go buy coffee and take a break, the other gets food, they both forget to sleep until someone reminds them to and its always fitful when they manage to finally fall asleep. Too many problems to solve to let the exhaustion hit fully.

The first time he hears his name he thinks nothing of it, he definitely wasn’t the only Tony around here, but the second time he hears his name his last name follows. He frowns, wondering if this was some kind of sleep deprived hallucination or if some sick twisted deity gave him _fans_ in a post apocalyptic world. “Stark!” the person calls again and he turns, knowing that voice.

“ _Rhodey_?” he asks, _sure_ that this was a product of his overworked brain but Rhodey plows into him, lifting him off the ground immediately and spinning him around.

“Oh my god I thought you were dead,” Rhodey tells him, bursting into tears immediately. Tony stands there, unsure what to do because Rhodey wasn’t much of a crier and he still wasn’t sure this was real. How the hell was he _alive_?

“I thought you were dead too,” he hears himself say back. “How… how are you alive?”

Rhodey steps back from him, sniffing still but he wipes his tears away fast, blinking to keep them at bay. “I got lucky- there was a bunker near where I was stationed and I managed to get a bunch of people in it before things got real nasty. It took us time to figure out how to send out any kind of signal for life, but after three weeks this weird ass plane showed up with these shots. We all thought were about to die but uh, guess Wakandans saved us,” he says.

Tony smiles, shaking his head because of course Rhodey would manage to save a bunch of people and himself too. People said Tony never did things small but neither did Rhodey, its just that Tony was louder about it than Rhodey was. He never bothered with the credit- it was one of many things Tony loved about him even if he thought Rhodey should demand credit where it was due. “I got rescued by what I _thought_ was an angel but it was just Nakia,” he says, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe his radiated brain decided to go religious when he’s never had faith. Stupid brain.

That earns him a laugh, “an angel? Wow,” Rhodey says, shaking his head. He looks over Tony for a moment when he doesn’t respond and frowns, “you need to sleep man, you look like hell.” He goes to protest this but Rhodey shakes his head, “you need sleep,” he says in a firmer tone this time.

He sighs, “first we need to get Shuri coffee, then sleep,” he compromises. Rhodey gives him a skeptical look but agrees.

*

When they get back to Shuri’s lab Rhodey is _impressed_. But he’s more impressed by the sheer amount of problems Tony and Shuri managed to solve together plus their list of things they still needed to fix. He got the idea that they were frighteningly efficient even if they both looked like something out of a zombie movie. He ends up shooing Shuri off to sleep too, which she probably only agrees to because of the obvious trust Tony has in him and because Tony mentioned his intelligence too. He wasn’t quite as smart as Tony, but he wasn’t far behind either. So he sends them off to sleep and starts looking over their growing list of problems to be solved, he solves a few of them too, and then someone walks in.

He turns and immediately gets a frown but Rhodey could take a guess at who she was immediately. Her beauty gave her away- he doubted Tony attributed angelic qualities to many people and this woman was certainly stunning even if she looked like she was about to murder him. “Relax, I’m a friend of Tony’s. He might have mentioned me- Rhodey? I’m guessing you’re the angel that saved his dumb ass,” he says.

Nakia continues giving him a suspicious look for several long seconds before she steps forward, “where is Shuri?” she asks. He nods to the corner of the room where both Tony and Shuri were piled in a heap snoring away. Nakia loses a bunch of the suspicion then, “you convinced them to sleep?” she asks. There’s an undercurrent of interrogation there but he ignores it because he gets it.

“After Tony told Shuri I’m almost on par with him in the intelligence department, yeah. How are so many things alive here?” he asks. So much, people included, seemed to have survived but he saw animals too, plants, various other things that shouldn’t be around and he had no idea how that was.

“The short answer? Vibranium,” Nakia tells him, “and Shuri. Then Tony and a handful of other scientists became instrumental in keeping us alive. What are you looking over?” she asks, stepping towards him. He hands over one of Shuri’s tablets and explains what he was looking at, then asks Nakia to explain what the fuck he was looking at because he only understood half of it.

*

T’Challa was surprised to find Rhodey in Shuri’s lab, but he’s more surprised by his… discomfort at seeing the obvious and easy chemistry between Tony and Rhodey. There was a history there and everyone could see it plainly. They made jokes about events that happened twenty years prior and they were so in sync they almost seemed to read each other’s minds. Shuri found them endlessly annoying but got her revenge with all her ridiculous meme references that Rhodey was lost on but Tony found funny.

“You didn’t expect to get attached,” Nakia says, raising an eyebrow at him.

No, he hadn’t. “No one has ever compared to you,” he says honestly. And how could they? Nakia was an impossible act to live up to so why did he feel so… irritated watching Tony laugh at Rhodey’s jokes.

“Neither does he, T’Challa. The reason you didn’t move on wasn’t because no one lived up to me, its because you never let anyone else build themselves a pedestal in your life like you let me do. But it’s easy to see how Tony has done that for you- without his helping Shuri we would have suffered a lot more than we did. Shuri is brilliant, but she’s only one person and Tony is exceptional at communication across sciences,” she says. Shuri refused to make the time- she put her country first and to do that she needed to focus all her efforts on the problems in front of her or at least that’s what she thought. Tony did most of the talking with everyone else and it helped that he knew a lot of the people he had to make contact with even if he hadn’t met them personally.

“I… didn’t expect that to happen,” he says softly.

Nakia shrugs, “most don’t, but you should talk to him. He and Shuri aren’t the only ones who are stressed and you talk to him, I’ve seen it. You need that,” she says gently.

Yes he did and he knew that, but talking to people was difficult. Talking to Tony came naturally not that he realized that until just now.

“And if he says no?” he asks.

“So what if he does, I said no and we’ve always remained friends,” she points out. That was a point that was true, but he didn’t want it to be. Nakia smiles at him, clearly guessing at his thoughts and finding it amusing because she knew she was right and he wasn’t.

He sighs, “sometimes you being so smart is irritating,” he tells her.

She smiles wider, “only to you,” she teases.

*

Tony was ready to fall over dead and Rhodey has been trying to shoo him out of the lab for hours with little success. The good news was that the fish weren’t dying anymore; the bad news was that this herb thing was and people were losing their _shit_ about the damn herb. What was it? The square herb? Herb of diamonds? No, that was stupid. Heart shaped herb, that was it. Whatever, point was people were losing it over the herb so he and Shuri were charged with making sure the plant didn’t die off immediately and they had the luck of finding a few different botanists that knew more than they did so they were both letting them do the leg work here.

He’s rather surprised when the door opens and T’Challa walks in though, smiling at him as he does. Tony offers a weak smile back before turning back to his work. “Hey, you’re the king, kick him out,” Rhodey says to T’Challa.

“He’s not going to kick me out just because you want him to, platypus,” Tony says, shaking his head.

T’Challa sits down across from him, “I won’t, but I was hoping to pull you from the lab if you were willing,” he says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “for what? More of that herb dying off again?” he asks but T’Challa shakes his head. Its about then that Tony notices the slight redness to T’Challa’s cheeks, something he missed before due to his darker skin tone.

“No. I um, uh…” he trails off, making a small, strangled noise as he freezes, looking like an deer in the headlights.

“Will you go on a date with him?” someone else asks from across the room. Tony looks up to find Okoye looking in at them from around the corner smiling.

T’Challa looks offended, “I can ask myself,” he mumbles, embarrassed.

Okoye smiles wider, “after you stopped squeaking like a mouse I’m sure you would have managed,” she tells him, laughing at the scandalized noise T’Challa makes. She disappears back around the corner and T’Challa sighs.

“Well this is sufficiently embarrassing,” he murmurs and he goes to stand up but Tony catches him before he goes.

“Wait. I could use a coffee break,” he says, smiling.

T’Challa smiles back, “thank you,” he says but Tony shrugs.

“Its not like it’s a hardship. Besides, you know me better than most anyways,” he points out.

“Oh what the hell, what am I, chopped liver?” Rhodey asks, totally ruining the moment and he knows it too. “So when y’all are done do you think you can get me a date with Nakia because I’m half convinced Tony was right about her being an angel. Have you seen her face? Have you seen her _fight_? She’s blessed,” Rhodey says with this stupid dazed look on his face. Tony and T’Challa exchange a look and roll their eyes in sync but they’re smiling too.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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